Providence Health lays off 150 employees

Providence Health & Services, which operates nine hospitals in Washington, not including its affiliated hospitals run by Swedish Health Services, issued 60-day layoff notices Friday to 150 employees, most of them in the Puget Sound area.

The employees, most in jobs billing, medical records and patient registration and scheduling, were eliminated in a large-scale reorganization of Providence’s revenue operations over the past 18 months, said Colleen Wadden, Providence spokeswoman.

The move will help cut the cost of administrative work, reduce the variation in service throughout the company and better coordinate various work areas with electronic health records, Wadden said.

Another 246 employees affected by the restructuring have found other jobs within Providence, she said, and about 200 employees left for other reasons.

Most of the layoffs affect workers at the system’s Renton headquarters; others work in Southwest or Northwest Washington locations. A total of 687 employees were involved in the redesign.

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